Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (JRD Tata or "Jeh") was born in France in July, 1904. Due to his monumental contributions to India, I believe he can never be forgotten by us Indians; particularly by those of us who lived in his times. An industrialist and visionary par excellence, it his he who laid the foundation of modern India, in part and nurtured its growth particularly through its difficult fledgling days after independence in 1947. (Note: Tata Sons Ltd is also popularly known as the "Tata Group" or simply, "Tatas").
There is a lot of information available on the Internet and other sources about this great person, particularly the book "Beyond The Last Blue Mountain: the Authorised Biography of J.R.D. Tata" by R M Lala (ISBN-10: 0670844306; ISBN-13: 978-0670844302). So, I won't spend time repeating them here except at the level of an outline.
As of the 07-Jul-2017 (date of this Post), the Tata Group is a US $ 103.5 billion corporation. It has operations in more than 100 countries that are spread out over six continents. It employs over 660, 000 people world-wide. Jeh was Chairman of Tata Sons Ltd., from 1938 - 1991, an over half century period that was crucial to a young India that turned independent in 1947. There was no Indian leader who could envision a strong, self-reliant future India, what its future needs would be, prioritize resources and make & mastermind a plan to get there. It was largely Jeh and Tata Sons that took up this great responsibility, very quietly. Working close with the Government, he did this work eminently well. In 1938, when Jeh took over as Chairman, the Tata Group was a US $100 million business with about 15 group companies. When he stepped down in 1991, he had turned it round in to US $ 5 billion enterprise with nearly 100 companies in its fold, many of them of the "core" or essential kind that supply the very lifeblood that sustains a growing India even today!
Why I decided to write this article is because I strongly feel that Jeh's biographers & analysts have left out a big void in their accounts of him. In their analyses, they touch upon almost every other quality and aspect about him - except the most important one, in my opinion i.e. his deeply rooted spiritual character. As one of Jeh's admirers, I've felt pained by this notable omission. This Post, is therefore a sincere attempt to fill up that void. It is an attempt to draw a portrait of the man from a spiritual perspective and then to emphatically claim that he was inwardly a saint and that that spiritual quality was the most important part of him.
He appears as a gently glittering memory in the mind, when I begin to think of him. He always had the pleasant, smiling countenance of a man who is in very good control of himself. Level-headed and calm, he was not likely to get excited or show emotion excessively. Nor get angry often. Firm but gentle. Visionary. Thinker. Philosophical. Brave taker of challenges. And if you say that two good qualities in men are being logical and practical in mind, Jeh would be one of the best examples of such a class of men.
He was travelling on a journey in life. Going where? I can't tell but there was an unseen, inspiring force charting his life's course continuously. Like all things that we call "spiritual", it is something invisible and genuinely works but cannot be logically defined! It is reckoned by its qualities, what it does, the influence it exerts on others and what it produces.
To be spiritual, one must possess one or more of the above invisibles. So I've written a list (below) of the spiritual attributes of Jeh, as I best know them.
◊ Deeply people loving. Those who knew him personally tell us that he was kind and helpful. He was friendly and approachable. Human suffering caused pain to him. And whatever caused India to suffer was of deep concern to him.
◊ A highly "inclusive" thinker. Jeh once said "we all believe that we are trustees, and not owners, of very important national assets and we work for social objectives" when talking about the large number of Tata owned organizations spread all over India in diverse fields such as engineering, manufacturing, chemicals, education, health care, research and so on. His thinking welcomed Indians to work with Tata organizations, as honoured guests - a generous gesture that won the hearts of umpteen Indians and drew leaders in various fields of enterprise to the Tata fold. Those who joined were so well cared for that many chose to remain dedicated Tata employees all through their working lives.
Inclusive thinking also reveals an unselfish and large-hearted personality. And quite rightly, it was in recognition of his selfless service to the nation that the Government of India awarded him the nation's highest honour, the "Bharat Ratna" in 1992.
◊ Uncompromising integrity. Jeh has the personal reputation of never cheating, evading taxes, or failing to keep promises made. Though not the most important, surely, this is one of the reasons that at his death, breaking custom, the Indian Parliament was adjourned as a mark of respect to him - a rare honor, never-before bestowed on any civilian in India
◊ Apart from Parsi scriptures (that I suppose were close to him) love for the great Christian hymn "Abide With Me", and works of literature that have strong spiritual content
◊ Choosing to live a frugal life, despite being fabulously rich !
◊ Being part of the Tata family which has a reputation for integrity and adherence to values over generations
◊ Being a stickler for integrity in business, work quality and adherence to healthy human values
◊ The final proof I have to present, and also the one that I believe is irrefutable, is the first stanza from Jeh's favorite poem, "The Golden Journey to Samarkand" by James Elroy Flecker:
"We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
Beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea."
Note: You need to believe in poetry to accept this proof. So if you don't, please skip this bullet point completely!
Study this stanza quietly for a few moments. Then see, how well "pilgrim" in the poem describes Jeh. First, his lifelong integrity makes him worthy of being treated as a pilgrim. Then, qualities like being brave to explore uncharted terrains, going a "little further ..." in pursuit of quality & perfection in business, crossing "angry ... glimmering seas" of adversity (and continuing his pursuit even when he had to go it alone).
How do you feel? I believe that it is the pursuit of something that he saw "beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow" that gave him the lifelong inspiration, vision, energy, endurance, patience and courage to pursue his goals to the very end of his life.
With the above, I hope I have been able to accomplish what I set out to prove: that JRD Tata was a indeed a saint in the business world. Despite his leadership of Tata Sons that was engaged in enormous, nation building/ sustaining tasks, his personal life was surprisingly simple and sweet. From where he now peacefully rests "beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow" his life will continue to be a beautiful inspiration to many.
"We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
Beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea."
Note: You need to believe in poetry to accept this proof. So if you don't, please skip this bullet point completely!
Study this stanza quietly for a few moments. Then see, how well "pilgrim" in the poem describes Jeh. First, his lifelong integrity makes him worthy of being treated as a pilgrim. Then, qualities like being brave to explore uncharted terrains, going a "little further ..." in pursuit of quality & perfection in business, crossing "angry ... glimmering seas" of adversity (and continuing his pursuit even when he had to go it alone).
How do you feel? I believe that it is the pursuit of something that he saw "beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow" that gave him the lifelong inspiration, vision, energy, endurance, patience and courage to pursue his goals to the very end of his life.
With the above, I hope I have been able to accomplish what I set out to prove: that JRD Tata was a indeed a saint in the business world. Despite his leadership of Tata Sons that was engaged in enormous, nation building/ sustaining tasks, his personal life was surprisingly simple and sweet. From where he now peacefully rests "beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow" his life will continue to be a beautiful inspiration to many.
NOTE: My first job was with The Tata Engineering & Locomotive Company, TELCO (now Tata Motors Ltd), Pune starting in 1981. JRD Tata who was Chairman of Tata Sons at that time, would visit TELCO often and on some visits would spend the entire day at work on the campus. I never met or worked one-on-one with him. I was too immature and insensitive at that time - it is much later and after working with a couple of other employers that I've learned to appreciate the values practised by this great businessman, and the powerful example it has set in the Indian business world.
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